


With This Ring, I Promise Thee

by LittleMissRainbow



Series: can't color inside the lines [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Brotherhood, Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Headcanon, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothetical Backstory, Kagami-centric, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 06:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17381798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissRainbow/pseuds/LittleMissRainbow
Summary: Taiga’s first memory of his mother was her smile.For someone who fights for everything, why was he suddenly so accepting of giving up his brotherhood with Himuro?





	With This Ring, I Promise Thee

**Author's Note:**

> I have nothing to say except Kagami is a precious angel and he should be cherished as such. Thank you.
> 
> ((Any and all mistakes or typos are all my fault and will probably only be fully corrected once I've finished the story.))

It’s been a little over a month since school started before someone took notice of the ring.

Practice was about to start and Taiga was running late. He was asked to stay in class by his teacher for a few words about his flunked Math quiz. It turns out, a “few words” meant a mini-lecture session so he had to basically teleport to the gym to make it in time, lest he gets strangled by the coach (read: put in a Boston Crab Hold). Sure enough, the locker room was deserted when he got in.

Or at least he thought it was.

“Kagami-kun.”

The words that streamed out of his mouth in rapid succession made drunk sailors look like angels.

Disapproval colored Kuroko’s tone, though his face retained its neutral mask. “There was no need for that.”

He could argue that,  _yes_ , there  _was_ a need for that, but he knew by now that there was no use arguing the point. Taiga swore the guy got off on scaring people half to death, the sadistic bastard.

Instead, he asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

He made a quick glance at the shoelaces he just finished tying and back to Taiga’s face, giving him a flat look. “This is the locker room. I believe I am justified to change here whenever I want.”

“You basta—”

He stood up, dusting his shorts. “Are you done, Kagami-kun? We have to go know or Coach will triple our training menu.”

Taiga cursed. “Right. Practice. Hang on.” He hurriedly slipped his shoes on, managing not to fall on his ass and rushed towards the door.

“Kagami-kun, you forgot something.”

“Huh?” Kuroko was holding a necklace chain, faintly glinting from the movement. Its pendant, a plain silver ring, swayed in time to the teasing rhythm.

_His._

“Oh, thanks,” Taiga said, taking it from him. It must have slipped off his neck when he was changing.

There was a brief silence before Kuroko spoke. “Can I ask you something, Kagami-kun?”

Taiga blinked. “Yeah?”

“I always see you wearing that necklace. At first, I thought you were just fond of wearing dog tags, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. What’s more is that what you’re wearing on your neck is a ring.” Kuroko looked at him seriously. “Is Kagami-kun secretly engaged?”

“… I don’t even know how to respond to that.” What’s worse is that Kuroko doesn’t look like he’s joking.

_“Just what do you boys think you’re doing?”_

The atmosphere suddenly dropped, ice caps practically forming on top of the lockers. Both boys turned to see their coach leaning on the doorway, her hands across her chest with a menacing smile on her face.

Suffice it to say, the answer to Kuroko’s question was saved for another day.

**.**

 

**.**

 

**.**

Taiga’s first memory of his mother was her smile—a row of pearlescent teeth peeking under pale, chapped lips, a smattering of blood on the delicate membrane.

She was incredibly pale, looking like she just went through the wringer. Her pallor looked even unhealthier in contrast to the vibrant red of her hair that flew in different directions. The bags under her eyes told a very exhausting story, a story that one would rather bury in the past, never to be reopened again.

Still, her eyes sparkled with joy even under the harsh lights of the fluorescents and she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Looking back on it now, he supposed he must have made it all up on his mind. Just because they had a picture of his mom holding him in her arms right after he was born, it didn’t mean he remembered the  _actual_ thing. Maybe it was just the heat in LA that was getting to him. It was so surreal that he tried asking his dad about it, but the only answer he got was a tiny smile and a pat on the head.

So he went for the next best thing: his basketball buddies.

“I dunno, dude, that was like years ago,” said Jay, the blond kid who lives across the street. Jay’s not even his real name, but his name’s a real mouthful so they settled for calling him ‘Jay'—not that Taiga even  _knew_ his real name. All he knew about him is that he’s got some moves on the paint and could do a wicked backflip without a spotter. “Who even remembers something like that?”

Himuro-kun–no;  _Tatsuya_ –hummed, idly dribbling the ball in his hands. Taiga watched him with rapt attention. Even fooling around, he was really graceful in his movements. “Well, who knows? Maybe it’s actually possible. I heard Bill the other day saying his brother taught him how to play video games when he was three.”

“Well, Bill’s full of crap,” Not-Jay replied, disgruntled. “Remember when he said an elephant lived in his backyard?”

“Technically, there was,” Kagami said. It was a ceramic garden elephant his parents got from India. Not what he’d promised, but an elephant nonetheless.

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, have you heard about that basketball pro who’s been coming to streetball games recently?”

**.**

 

**.**

 

**.**

Meeting Tatsuya again—in  _Japan_ , no less—was…  _jarring_ , to say the least. After what went down between the two of them, nothing could have prepared Taiga for the onslaught of emotions that attacked him from all directions. As usual, Tatsuya remained as cool as a cucumber. “Cool head, hot heart.” Hasn’t that always been his motto? When was the last time he actually heard him say that to him? Taiga could no longer remember.

Still, poker-faced he might have been, but as someone who’s known him for years, Taiga easily recognized the fire burning in his eyes, the embers flickering and crackling with its strength that refused to be diffused, reminding him again of their promise.

The promise that vowed to destroy the first one they made.

“Kagami-kun, are you alright?” came Kuroko’s voice.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been squeezing your ring for a while now,” he pointed out.

Immediately, as if he’s been burned, he let go of it. It hung limply around his neck, the ring resting innocently on his shirt as if it didn’t feel like a lion was sitting on his chest.

_No. No, I’m not fine._

“Yeah, I’m…” he cleared his throat. “I’m good.”

_But maybe it’s better this way._

Kuroko stared at him for a bit more before turning away, the contemplative look on his face from his interaction with Murasakibara still intact. Beneath the neutral expression on his face, it seemed he was still troubled by the events earlier. What an ironic twist of fate—that he and his partner, his shadow, both happened to see the person whom they had a strained relationship with at the same day and at the same place. Midorima would have a field day.

_I guess I’m just getting what was coming for me._

“That was a pretty threatening greeting. Do you two not get along?”

_This is all my fault, anyway._

**.**

 

**.**

 

**.**

Taiga could still remember the day his mother left.

It wasn’t like it was in the movies. It wasn’t raining; the sky was clear and  _had_ been for the past few days and the days after that. There was no sad music playing in the background; in fact, the only music playing was coming from the PC where Taiga was playing Super Mario Brothers. They didn’t even call each other names and throw stuff at each other.

There was only his mom, his dad, and Taiga—though they didn’t know that.

The conversation is muddy in his memory, but he knew they were fighting about his dad’s job transfer to America. It was far from the first time they fought and it wasn’t even the worst, but it may as well have been.

Right before Taiga’s very eyes, his father aged the years he didn’t possess. He looked like he was close to tears, which was ridiculous because his dad didn’t cry. He’s never heard his mom sound so far away, so detached and exhausted, like she’s been running a marathon with no end in sight.

Their words were whispered, filled with regret and hurt, and he couldn’t help but want to make his presence known. He wanted to tell them to stop fighting, to stop hurting each other, but it was like a rock lodged in his throat. He couldn’t talk. For all his cool bravado at school, he felt like an ant in front of his parents. Not because he was belittled by their presence, but because he never really knew what to do when they got this way.

He didn’t know how to make it all better, and perhaps that sense of  _helplessness_ was the strongest color that painted his childhood, one that he would haunt him until his growing years.

Taiga’s heart was beating so loud he was surprised his parents didn’t notice him hiding in the hallway. He couldn’t understand what was happening. He knew that they’ve been fighting for months—the shouting matches woke him up in the middle of the night. But they always patched things up afterwards.

_Everything’s gonna be okay. Right?_

(Perhaps that was one of the worst things, Taiga realized. The fact that them fighting has become so normal that he doesn’t even question it anymore. Once again, he berates his childhood stupidity.)

But it wasn’t okay. It never did get okay. When he woke up the next morning, his mother was gone.

She didn’t even say goodbye.

“Your mother has already made her decision. There was nothing else I could do.” His father tried his best explaining it to him, but how exactly could you tell a child that his mother left and will never come back? “I’m sorry, Taiga.”

It took a long time before Taiga walked back to his room, completely losing his appetite, and locked himself in his room. He didn’t bother turning on the lights or opening the blinds. There, surrounded in darkness, he willed himself for the sleep that never came.

Maybe this was just a bad dream. Maybe if he slept, it would all just turn out to be a prank or a joke. Maybe when he woke up next, Mom would be back making him breakfast with a smile on her face.

Maybe if he slept, he wouldn’t hear Dad crying in the other room.

**.**

 

**.**

 

**.**

The first time Seirin visited Taiga’s house, it ended the way a lot of them expected, but tried– _really tried_ –to stop from happening. Still, the size of the apartment–penthouse, really–took them by surprise that only a few of them managed to notice the minute details in what little Taiga had in the room.

“Man, my arms feel numb.”

“I’ve never felt so scared in my life and that’s saying something.”

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

As Mitobe rubbed his eyes, finally awake from the fitful slumber they thought they were never going to wake from, he noticed a small picture frame set aside on the farside of the mantlepiece. It was a happy picture of a woman holding a tiny bundle in her arms, beside what seemed to be her husband, whose arms were wrapped around his little family. The baby in her arms had tiny wisps of red on his head, looking not at the camera but at his mother’s smiling face.

Mitobe couldn’t help but think what a beautiful family they made. The only puzzling thing about it was why the photo looked rather frayed around the edges, but he presumed it was because of its old age.

His thoughts skidded to a halt when, out of nowhere, he heard a great  _thud_ coming from the hallway. Koga was half-sprinting and half-crawling towards him, garbled noises coming out of his mouth, as if he’s just seen a ghost.

Though why his face was bright red, he could only imagine.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
